In corporate-type environments, I've seen individuals working within the company be put on something like a secret discrimination list for not passing enough underrepresented candidates (even when there are not many options): you are forced to or there will be consequences.

Co-workers giddily talk about this after work at bars.

Unfortunately, this is the end point for most large companies.

It starts with "when hiring, we need to expand our candidate base to be more diverse" which is a laudable goal. Then it becomes "our employee distribution should reflect the underlying population" which also sounds reasonable on its face. When that doesn't actually happen, then quotas get set, which is a huge gray area. When quotas aren't met, then hiring managers get told "do not put white males up for consideration". I have personally experienced this on multiple occasions as a hiring manager.